William hewitt



(No Model.)

W. HEWITT.

METALLIC FABRIC.

No. 316,458. Patented Apr. 28, 1885.

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N PETERS. Fhulu-Lilhog'flphw. Washington. D C.

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WILLIAM HEXVITT, OF TRENTON, N EWV JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO THE TEEN TON IRON COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

METALLIC FABRIC.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 316,458, dated. April 28, 1885.

Application filed October 20, 1884. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, WILLIAM HEWITT, a citizen of the United States, residing at Trenton, New Jersey, have invented an Improvement in Metallic Fabrics, which can be used either for fencing, for the making of screens, or bed-bottoms, or for such other purposesas metallic or wire fabrics are ordinarily applicable to. of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is the construction of a cheap,durable, mechanically-simple and easily-manufactured metallic fabric.

To the above ends my invention consists in the combination,to form a metallic fabric,of a

series of corrugated or wrinkled metallic strips, rods, or pieccs' that is to say, strips of metal having kinks, bends, folds, or turns in themwith a series of twisted wire cables connected in predetermined relationship to the corrugated strips by having their strands embrace the strips separately, each strip being independently of every other strip locked into place by the cables, substantially in the manner shown in the drawings, and herein set forth.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a side elevation of a section of fabric en1bodying my invention and shown applied for use as a fence. Fig. 2 is a plan view of a section of fabric embodying myinvention and adapt- 0 ed for useas, for instance,abed-bottom. Fig.

7 3 is a transverse sectional view through one of the corrugated strips, indicating also the manner in which the wires composing one of the cables embrace said strip. Fig. 4 is a side elevational view of a full-sized section of a convenient form of corrugated strand. or strip.

Similar letters of reference indicate corre sponding parts in all the figures.

In the drawings,the corrugated strips are lettered A, and the cables which unite them to form the fabric 13. The corrugated strips are preferably of elliptic section, as shown in Figs. 3 and 4. They may, however, be of other cross-sectional form. The office of the corrugations, kinks, or bends in the strips is to form seats for and to retain against displacement the strands or wires composing the cables, which latter in being twisted about the strips lodge, so to speak, or seat themselves with respect to given corrugations of said strips, and so remain in position.

In the application of my fabric as a fence all that is necessary to do is to prolong given corrugated strips, as at a in Fig. 1, so that the prolonged ends may be embedded in the ground and form posts for the fence, the adjacent corrugated strips which are not prolonged constituting the pickets of the fence. It is also possible to employ wooden posts and apply the fabric to them, and, if desired, between the posts one or more prolonged strips may be provided.

In the drawings I have represented cables as composed of two strands. It would, however, be possible to employ more strands than two, although I prefer to use two only.

The fabric, considering, for the sake of illustration, its cables as warpthreads and its cor rugated strips as weftthreads, is conveniently made by spreading apart at given intervals in the act of twisting or forming the said cables the strands of all the cables,inserting agiven strip between all of the strands so spread apart, and then continuing the twisting of all of the strands so as to bind in by itself and 7 independently of every other strip the strip so introduced, and by then repeating the op eration with the next corrugated strip, and with each of the succeeding strips until the fabric is completed.

The corrugated strips themselves are preferably of malleable metal, and have their corrugations or crimps rolled into them.

It is essential that the crimps of the strips about which the cables are twisted should be 8 p of sufficient curvature or present a sufficient kink, so to speak, to occasion the securing of the strands of the cable about the crimps in such manner that the cables cannot be displaced with respect to their position longio tudinally upon the corrugated strips, and this is a most important feature of the invention, for, were the conditions otherwise, it is ap parent that it would be possible to withdraw or pull out any particular crimped strip, and 5 thereby destroy the fabric. It is apparent, also, that any longitudinal movement of the cables is impossible by reason of their strands surroundingand being twisted upon the strips.

The corrugated or wavy outline of the strips IOO presents a good appearance and renders the fabric ornamental.

I am aware that a wire-fence fabric has been produced by binding together with transverse binding wires or cables a series of main wires which have angles bent into them at opposite directions and at suitable distances apart for the binding-wires to engage with said angles when the latter have been so arranged, in making the'fabric, that alternate opposite angles in adjacent wires are together encircled and united by the loops of the binding-wires, the result being that in the completed fabric the said angles extend, respectively,ab0ve and below the line of direction of the wires on which they are formed; but to this construction, an essential of which is that two of the angles of adj acent angle-provided Wires should pass through I and be bound together by the same loop in the cable, I lay no claim. 7 r I am also aware that a wooden picket-fence has been made in which wooden pickets having convex and concave longitudinal edges or surfaces have been bound together by means of wire cables to form a fence, and to this construction I lay no claim.

Having thus described my invention, I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent 7 7 As a new 'article of manufacture, a metallic fabric composed of a series of corrugated, kinked, or crimped strips, rods, or pieces of metal and of a series of wire cables,the strands of which respectively embrace and bind in each strip independently of every other strip, substantially as shown anddescribed, and for the purposes specified.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto signed my name this 15th day of October, A. D. 1884.

WM. HEWITT. In presence of F. O. LOWTHORP, J r., J. BONSALL TAYLOR. 

